Leading Education Tech Magazine Sold to a New Publisher

Technological Horizons in Education Journal (T.H.E. Journal) has been sold to 101 Communications, the same folks who publish Campus Technology Magazine.

T.H.E. Journal has consistently given excellent coverage to educational software, and to general utilities and applications that can be used in schools and classrooms.

Here's the announcement -
http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10972

If you're in the US, you can click the link in the first paragraph and get a free subscription to the print version of T.H.E. Journal.

You can also get a free subscription to Campus Technology Magazine. On the page above, click on the "subscribe" link in the upper-right corner.

- from Al Harberg from DP Directory, Inc. - we write and submit software developers' press releases to education and computer editors

Marketing Educational Solutions

In his book "The Best Advice Ever for Becoming a Success at Work," Robert McCord quotes Lou Gerstner's 1997 comments in Fortune Magazine.

The CEO of IBM said, "It's important to step back from an industry that is full of people announcing new widgets every day - faster widgets, more widgets. What I'm learning from customers is that there is an excess of technology out there. The real pressure is, how do I use this stuff to achieve something important for my business?"

If Gerstner were selling educational software, I think he'd be happy that so many of his competitors were selling tech toys and tech tools, while his company was offering solutions to parents who want a better life for their kids.

- from Al Harberg of DP Directory, Inc. - we review business books for software marketers

Kids Following in Their Parents' Footsteps

Office Solutions Magazine reported the results of a survey by Junior Achievement regarding the percentage of teens who want to pursue the same careers as their parents:

- 11.5 percent want to follow in the career footsteps of their fathers.

- 4.1 percent want to follow in the career footsteps of their mothers.

- 78 percent didn't want to pursue either parent's career choice.

In a related survey by Digital Marketing Services, Office Solutions Magazine reported that Los Angeles workers are the happiest US workers. More than 71 percent of them said that they're happy or thrilled with their jobs. The national average of happy or thrilled workers is 62.9 percent.

There seems to be a huge opportunity here for software that will help teens choose their future career paths.

- from Al Harberg of DP Directory, Inc. - we'll write and distribute your educational software press release

Educational Games Make Up 2 Percent of Total US Game Sales

The April/May issue of Edutopia magazine reports the results of an NPD Group study of the US retail (versus online) game market in 2004.

Total game sales were $7.3 billion (US). The breakdown was $5.2 billion in console games, $1.0 billion in portable game software, $1.0 billion in non-educational PC game software, and $140 million in educational PC software.

In a separate chart, they show the number of units of educational PC game software sold. The numbers drop from nearly 20 million in 2001 to about one third that amount in 2004.

It's very difficult to interpret the numbers. With so many US tax dollars diverted from education to homeland security, the numbers could simply reflect the falling school budgets for educational games. Buried in the numbers could be a healthy and growing home market.

Furthermore, within these big-picture numbers, there could be market segments that are growing, and others that are falling (for example, math games versus history games).

- from Al Harberg from DP Directory, Inc. - we write and submit news releases about software to game reviewers

Member of the Month

Our newest member of the month is Jay Lichtenauer of MacinMind Software
at www.edu-soft.org/mom/index.shtml